On the Chaplaincy

Most people would agree that a modern democracy owes it to itself and its citizens to maintain a secular approach to affairs of state; the separation between the church and the people's sovereign institutions of governance is imperative to those same institutions' impartiality before all citizens and their proper service of state interests.

So why is it that our armed forces are still maintaining an active chaplaincy - either at home or in missions abroad - on the public dime? Is it so strange that our enemies think we're fighting religious wars against them? Our own government is paying to ship priests overseas to preach the Christian message.

I understand that our soldiers are doing a tough job and some of them need a bit of spiritual guidance or what have you to be able to go out and face those realities every day for however long their tours of duty end up being. But the abovementioned proper service of state interests requires that we consider the ramifications of state-sponsored religious figures in our state-sponsored war-machine (not that the Canadian war-machine is particularly terrifying, but I wouldn't wanna piss 'em off, anyway). The trick, I believe, lies in the "state-sponsored" bit.

Soldiers who want spiritual guidance should be given the same choice as people all over Canada and the United States: pay the Tithe. The military could cut funding to the chaplaincy entirely, paying only for their transportation, while the soldiers themselves pay the tithe from their salaries to keep their regiments stocked with all that's required to satisfy their spiritual needs. This hands-off approach may not be immediately appreciated by our enemies on the ground, but the intellectuals (and yes, our enemies do have a class of intellectuals interpretting world events for them) may well understand the intention behind the change.

Additionally, the stories of soldiers forced to attend services by social pressures might change if the culture of religious kow-towing espoused by the people at the top is, in this way, forced to change. I doubt it, but one can hope. The real pay-off will be in the long run; every other facet of our society has benefitted from the democratization and accessibility that secularization has brought with it, the military will prove to be no exception.

The Atheist Movement

There is a certain amount of steam building up behind the current global Atheist Movement (yes, capital letters, now. It's that big); there has always been good atheist material (hey, Thomas Jefferson questioned the validity of religion, that's a ways back. He weren't the first one, either) available to people, but not so much as has been available in the last 15 - 20 years; the advent of the internet has made much of that old material accessible & the outrage of that great network's denizens at the wool that has been pulled over the eyes of the world is becoming palpable.

This outrage has led to a more forceful, if not necessarily more widely accepted entrance of this debate into the public sphere & has brought about the works of such authors as Professor Richard Dawkins and the ever-surly, ever-petulant, though often sharp & quite intelligent Christopher Hitchens. The new (admittedly low - I wouldn't call it a flood) tide of writings on the subject has, itself, sparked further debate and brought the subject, aswell as the contrasts between religion & atheism further into the light of day; there's a ways left to go, but with reason, logic, research, determination, science and anger on our side, we'll continue making headway.

The debate isn't a semantic one; as little as the existence or non-existence of God affects anyone in their day-to-day life (I'm not talking about belief, which can make a, er... Tangible difference in a person's life), the argument for and against the continued existence of religion - and, let's face it, that's what it really is - has entered the sphere of science education, scientific research ethics, medical ethics, social attitudes with regards to sexuality & the propriety of certain types romance; it is there that real damage is being done. I won't go into any specifics right here (it would be redundant, Greta Christina has already taken care of that - see the anger link), but I think that, in some people's case, this is well & truly an infringement on their day-to-day lives. In such light, the need for mobilization becomes immediately apparent.

This Atheist Movement, while it certainly isn't new is definitely experiencing a rebirth &, one might argue, a growth spurt. I have been hesitant in the past to claim that there was a genuine movement afoot, for fear that it might be misunderstood as a faith-based movement, but the need for a change of attitudes - a paradigm shift, as they say - is undeniable and only an organized, concerted effort on our part can make that happen.

It must be said, if there was ever a social movement composed of more intelligent, rational and well-informed people, it has yet to be brought to my attention; I couldn't be prouder of belonging to a group of any meaningful import.

(Yes, I know, it's taken a while between posts; sorry)

The Big Red A at the Bottom of the Page

You may have noticed the big ole' A at the bottom of my page; it's part of an internet campaign that I'm proud to be a part of. It's designed to let people who might otherwise be isolated in their non-faith know that they aren't alone. Any website or blog bearing that big A is a website run by a person proclaiming their atheism to the world. Not everyone is as lucky as me - big city, secular province, etc; not everyone lives in an area where it's OK to be an atheist.

Yet it is part & parcel with the next step in human intellectual advancement; philosophy, ethics & morality can not advance much further with ancient fairy-tales holding them back. Those people hiding their non-faith in the intolerant regions of the US, europe, etc, know this as well as the rest of us, but they naturally fear rejection and loneliness. So this is mine & others' gesture towards them, letting them know that it is safe to proclaim their understanding of the universe and their doubt of the fictional framework of their oppressive society.

So here's to the next step.